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Monthly Archives: August 2014

‘IQ Baby’ by Gabriel Morales and Dr Julie Harvard is an educational guide that teaches readers how to create an intelligent child. This simple aim is actually a lot harder to achieve than one would first suspect, as proven by the authors of this fascinating e-book. I learnt an awful lot from this prestigious work and came away knowing more about intelligence and the importance of good nutrition than I had thought possible.

Written in sharp, no-nonsense prose and filled with an agglomeration of helpful summaries, quotes, annotations and pictures, ‘IQ Baby’ adopts a professional approach when explaining the importance of raising children right. I learnt that as much as 80% of a child’s IQ is due to genetics, and the rest is down to environmental factors. I also learnt about the different types of intelligence: fluid (the ability to follow logic and work out novel problems) and crystallised (the type of intelligence that accumulates over a life time and is due to acquired facts and knowledge). Most fascinating of all was the Flynn Effect that reveals global IQ is going up by 2 points per generation. Maybe children really are smarter than their grandparents!

This book deals with everything anyone wishing to have a child needs to know, from how to prepare for pregnancy, to the best birthing conditions, to ensuring your child has a love for maths when they grow up. Comprehensive and complete, this guide blew me away with intriguing facts and succeeded in teaching me a thing or two about a topic I knew nothing about.

I would definitely recommend this guide to anyone who thinks that they want to have children in the future. Knowing how to raise an intelligent child is important as studies show that intelligent people tend to live longer and get better jobs. Congratulations to Gabriel Morales on a successful and interestingly informative handbook for life’s biggest adventure!

‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’ by young author Scott Lynch is a spellbinding fantasy set in the chaotic streets of Camorr, a sticky, crime-soaked metropolis. The story, cleverly split between two parallel narratives (one of which is set in the past, the other the present) depicts the adventures and misadventures of Locke Lamora, a cocky, yet talented, thief. As he runs elaborate scams and skirts his way around the tangled politics of his home city, he must dodge enemies at every turn and confront himself when the need for revenge threatens to drown him.

When I first stumbled across this book, I was promised a rip-roaring fantasy adventure that even Fantasy Guru George R. R. Martin reveres. ‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’ thankfully didn’t disappoint. Lynch manages to weave a complex world that drags the reader in and refuses to let them go. Everything about Camorr was carefully thought out and presented in marvellous, copious detail, from the wine to the nightlife to the diseases that sometimes run rampant. The sheer amount of detail created a sense of reality that shrouds this thoroughly entertaining novel. I bought into the ways and quirks of Camorr completely. This is one of those rare reads that forces the mind out of the body and sends it travelling right to the centre of the action; I felt like I was sweating alongside Locke when he was in one of his countless tight situations. Putting this book down is the only way for a reader to leave the streets of Camorr and return home.

Though slightly too gore splattered for my liking, the way Lynch blends genres in his series debut was masterful to behold. The confidence of his fantasy world, coupled with the excitement of a crime thriller and the occasional detective element (who were the unseen enemies circling Locke, and what was the identity of the Grey King, or the Spider?) made this book an even bigger success in my mind. I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone who enjoys creative abandon and being immersed in an exciting fantasy thriller. I’ll definitely be reading the rest of Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard Trilogy.